Jennifer Lang

On:
In: Book Reviews

I’ve just published my annual reading list for 2025 here, (a little late, but its still January!) as I’ve done for over a decade. Do check out the whole thing, but here are a few of my particular highlights from this year’s books, which, as always, are a bit of an eclectic mixture.Continue Reading

On:
In: Climate Change, Demography, Statistics

In Australia, the number of deaths per annum is likely to increase by around 1% by 2030 up to 7% by the end of this century due to global heating. The extra deaths will mostly be at older age groups, and among those who find it harder to shelter from heat. There are likely to be other climate related reasons death rates will increase – extra pollution from fires, more tropical diseases, natural disasters –  not included in those extra deaths.Continue Reading

On:
In: Covid19, Statistics

For this post, I’ve created a little visualisation for the experience around the world. Our paper has a section looking at that experience, and I’ve selected 20 countries for this animated chart. It’s a sobering reminder, from here in Australia, how much worse the pandemic was in most of the rest of the world than it was here.Continue Reading

On:
In: Blogging, Covid19, Feature, Statistics

Four years after starting my COVID reflections series, I’ve learned that:

– Looking for a bit of beauty every day is a great way of finding positives in the world
– Writing about what is happening the world is much better for my state of mind than doomscrolling
– A community of people reading and reflecting is even better!
– Basic, widely available data and information is a vital part of government’s role, and one which they are still not doing enough.Continue Reading

On:
In: Australian Politics, Demography, Statistics

I’m going to be voting Yes in the referendum about the Voice to Parliament. Making decisions about people without giving them a say is not a great way to make great decisions. And it hasn’t worked.

To illustrate, I’m going to talk about a measure I do know a lot about – mortality. The life expectancy of indigenous people in Australia is much lower than for all Australians. And the gap is growing.Continue Reading

On:
In: Climate Change, Feature, Insurance, Risk management

The first phase of uninhabitability is uninsurability – Michael Mann, renowned climate scientist.

As climate risks to property increase, the people who live in places exposed to those risk are less and less able to afford to insure their properties. Which will start to create climate ghettos. And the housing crisis in Australia will worsen, as areas in areas with high risk of disaster become uninsurable.Continue Reading